"My dear friend, you must excuse me. I am perfectly satisfied. A very good name, Angelot! But to read or listen to that ancient poetry before the flood—"
They all laughed. "What a wonderful man he is!" said the Comte to Madame Urbain. "As poetical as he is practical."
It all seemed pleasant trifling, then and for the rest of the evening. The young countryman of Ronsard's naming was rather silent and shy, and the Comte's daughter had not much to say; the elders talked for the whole party. This, they thought, was quite as it should be.
But the boy who had said that morning, "Young girls are hardly companions for me," and had talked lightly of his father's finding a husband for Mademoiselle de Sainfoy, lay down that night with a girl's face reigning in his dreams; and went so far as to tell himself that it was for good or evil, for time and for eternity.
CHAPTER VII
THE SLEEP OF MADEMOISELLE MOINEAU
"We must make the best of it," said Madame de Sainfoy. "To be practical is the great thing. I know you agree with me."
She had a dazzling smile, utterly without sweetness. Madame de la Marinière said it was like the flashing of sunbeams on ice; but it had a much more warming and inspiring effect on Urbain.
"It is one of the few consolations in life," he said, "to meet with supreme good sense like yours."